New Skylanders May be Called Superchargers
Speculation and possible leaks suggest Activision's toys-to-life Skylanders series will see a number of changes in its next official release, including vehicles and an all-new title: Skylanders Superchargers. .
VideoGamer reports a number of leaks have added to the possible validity of this information, including a now-deleted Instagram post from professional rally and motocross competitor Travis Pastrana.
"Was filming some cool stuff for a new Activision game called Skylanders Superchargers this weekend," Pastrana wrote. His supposed involvement suggests that in-game vehicles could be a reality.
The Evil Within Digital Bundle Now Available
A new digital bundle for Shinji Mikami's The Evil Within including the base game and all season pass content is now available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3.
The Evil Within Digital Bundle comes in at $80 USD on Xbox One -- the same price as a digital copy of the game plus the season pass. Meanwhile, the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 versions are currently available for $45 USD. The season pass content includes two story add-ons -- The Assignment and The Consequence -- as well as The Executioner, which was released today.
Star Wars Battle Pod Costs $100,000
Hey, serious Star Wars fans. Are you serious enough to dish out $35,000 on the personal Star Wars: Battle Pod arcade machine? What about $100,000?
Star Wars: Battle Pod, an aerial combat game set in the Star Wars universe with five stages from the original trilogy, will be available to pre-order in the US, EU, or JP on June 18, with prices starting at $35,000 / £24,000.
For the Premium Edition – which comes with genuine leather seats that synchronize with the game's movements, a choice of two designs based on the Rebel Alliance or Darth Vader, plus your name in the credits – you can expect to pay about $100,000.
Hot Toys Reveals Sleek New Iron Man Figure
Hot Toys' quest to leave no stone unturned in the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues. The company has revealed two more Iron Man figures joining their growing Avengers: Age of Ultron lineup - Iron Man Mark XLV and the Iron Legion drone.
The Mark XLV figure is actually the 300th figure in Hot Toys long-running Movie Masterpiece Series. It's an impressive milestone, but more importantly, it's an impressive figure. Like many recent Hot Toys Iron Man figures, the Mark XLV features die-cast metal pieces and LED light-up components. The figure is designed at 1:6 scale and measures about 12 inches tall. It features a a weathered paint job, interchangeable hands, a swappable battle-damaged chest piece, and a detailed display base inspired by the climax of Age of Ultron.
ILM Celebrates 40 Years of Awesome Visual Effects
In May 1975, George Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create special effects for his "little space opera thing," then known as The Star Wars. The company started out in a tiny warehouse in Van Nuys, California, comprised of a handful of young college students, artists and engineers. Today, ILM is a company made up of thousands of employees and has since contributed to over 300 feature films.
Director Duncan Jones Discusses Orcs, ILM's Involvement in Warcraft
To celebrate its 40th anniversary, ILM has posted an amazing sizzle reel of visual effects shots, featuring films like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Terminator 2, Back to the Future and many, many more. Check it out:
PlayStation Plus Offering Exclusive Sales to Members
PlayStation Plus is getting special discounts only for members, called "Specials."
The first round kicks off today and lasts through June 1. It includes Bloodborne, The Order: 1886, and Dark Souls 2 for $48 USD apiece, a Dragon Ball Xenoverse bundle for $45, and Helldivers for $18 USD.
PlayStation Plus members usually get deeper discounts than non-Plus members during sale events, but the PlayStation Blog specifies that this program is meant only for Plus members. Specials will also sometimes include DLC bundles just for Plus members. The Dragon Ball bundle, for example, includes a free bit of DLC on top of the 10% discount.
Warcraft Director on ILM’s Orc-Sized VFX Challenge
Director Duncan Jones recently opened up about the filming of his 2016 film Warcraft, revealing more about the filming process and his crew.
Wired reports that ILM wanted to be involved with the VFX work for Warcraft, departing from their typical work for the chance to try something new and exercise their abilities as special effects creators.
"(For) ILM, this was an opportunity to show they are still the best in the world at special effects,” Jones said.
While filming, Jones recalls being more preoccupied with directing performances, leaving the motion-capture work to VFX supervisor Bill Westenhoefer and ILM's Jeff White and Jason Smith.
Robert Rodriguez Reportedly Directing Jonny Quest Movie
Warner Bros. has reportedly hired Robert Rodriguez to direct its long-gestating live-action film adaptation of Jonny Quest.
According to Deadline, the filmmaker and Terry Rossio (Pirates of the Caribbean) are rewriting a Dan Mazeau draft that made the Black List, with Dan Lin and Adrian Askarieh producing.
Jonny Quest began as a Hanna-Barbera cartoon that aired in 1964. The series followed a boy who accompanied his scientist father, bodyguard Race Bannon and friend Hadji on globe-trotting adventures.
Warners has tried to get the movie made for years, including one version that had Zac Efron to play Jonny and Dwayne Johnson to play Bannon.
Must Have: Mad Max LEGO Custom Sets
Did someone say Mad Max: Fury Road LEGO sets...?
A Reddit user by the name of LEGO Will has created a handful of custom LEGO sets replicating designs of the vehicles from the recently-released Mad Max opus.
Including Imperator Furiosa's War Rig, Immortan Joe's modified Cadillac, and the infamous Doof Wagon complete with several drum players (but sadly no flame-throwing guitars), LEGO Will's Fury Road creations can be seen in the slideshow below and on his official Flickr page.
Directed by George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road has gained a great deal of critical praise since its debut. Read IGN's Mad Max: Fury Road review to learn more about deadly road trips through apocalyptic wastelands.
Remedy Boss Leaves Alan Wake Dev to Form New Studio
Oskari Häkkinen has announced that he's left Remedy to form his own mobile game/app studio called Futurefly.
The now former head of franchise development behind Alan Wake confirmed his departure to VentureBeat, telling the outlet that the goal of Futurefly is to provide consumers with applications that would traditionally be labeled as non-game in nature, but feature gameplay elements.
"We are on a mission to disrupt the consumer app space with games on the top of our minds," he explained. "We are designing consumer apps with playable mechanics as part of the primary input mechanism. This is a new take, and something that is better shown than talked about. Fortunately, we are well into the development of our first installment, so you won’t have to wait too long."